STORMY REUNION

Blurb

Lyndsay Richards is an experienced Park Ranger so, why is she missing in a National Park she knows as well as the back of her hand?

Rick Masters is a Detective, a man who had a huge crush on Lyndsay in high school. A poster showing she is missing brings secret memories flooding back. He is determined to find her.

Does Rick still have feelings for Lyndsay? Will this be his chance to capture the girl of his dreams?

Set in Kuringai National Park and Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Excerpt

Chapter One

The wind blew hard, the sky darkening and threatening a storm, when Lyndsay left the marked track and quietly followed the baby kangaroo along the edge of the mountain. The baby was moving with an unsteady gait; it appeared to be injured. I’ll only follow for a few minutes and then I’ll hurry back to the car, she told herself.

The clouds burst without warning; torrential rain had her drenched within seconds. Lyndsay shivered as she tried to push into the wind, trying desperately to return to the marked track. Fear raced through her body as the ground rumbled. Landslide! She started to run, adrenaline pushing her forward. It was too little too late. The ground slid away beneath her; she tumbled head over heels down the mountainside. Acres of mud and rubble assisted her fall, pushing her along. Gallons of water washed over her, she spluttered and coughed, trying desperately to breathe. Her backpack pounded into her back as she rolled. She was in a great deal of trouble.

A branch, attached to a tree stump seemed to reach out and grab her by the ankle, it stopped her from tumbling off a ledge and into the river below. It would have been certain death. Lyndsay clung onto the stump with half frozen, numb fingers until the landslide finally ceased. She glanced around at the rearranged landscape. She was perched precariously on the cliff edge, her ankle was at a strange, unnatural angle and pain wracked her body. She had no idea how she was going to get back to safety.

I have to get away from the edge and find somewhere safer. Lyndsay unpeeled her fingers from her savior and crawled upwards dragging her leg with the broken ankle behind her. Tears mixed with the rainwater which relentlessly pelted down on her.

Why did I stray from the track? She asked herself for about the hundredth time, but she knew why. An animal appeared to be in distress and she had to try and save it. An experienced hiker like her knew anything could happen when you were out in the bush. How many times had she drummed into her Boy Scout team, you must stay on the marked paths? But she had been prepared to take the risk to rescue the little kangaroo. An animal lover all her life, what else could she do?

A cave opening caught her eye and she crawled toward it. She pulled herself out of the rain and flopped onto her back. The five minutes of crawling had exhausted her. She was wet, freezing, and covered in mud. She was a long way from the marked track which led to America Bay and the waterfall, what if no-one found her? She would never see her three-year-old son, Dylan, again. He was her last thought before she passed out.